ArticlePloS one2014
The association of longitudinal and interpersonal continuity of care with emergency department use, hospitalization, and mortality among Medicare beneficiaries.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Towards a Quality Care Climate Perspective: A Systematic Review of Associations Among Patient Experience, Patient Outcomes, and Organisational Climate Factors in Hospitals.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Patient reported measures of continuity of care and health outcomes: a systematic review.BMC primary care · 2024Pooled it
- Primary medical care continuity and patient mortality: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Pooled it
- General practitioner strategies for managing patients with multimorbidity: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative research.BMC family practice · 2020Pooled it
- Continuity of care with doctors-a matter of life and death? A systematic review of continuity of care and mortality.BMJ open · 2018Pooled it
- Which aspects of continuity of care in primary care are associated with better self-rated health? A cross-sectional study among older adults in Berlin.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Continuity of care and patient-reported experiences in Norwegian general practice: are they linked, and does the measurement of continuity matter?Family practice · 2026Article
- Effects of the type and quality of usual source of care on medical expenditures in adults with diabetes before and during the COVID‑19 pandemic: a panel data analysis using the Korea Health Panel (2019-2022).BMC health services research · 2025Article
- Association of polydoctoring and mortality among persons over 85 years with multimorbidity: a prospective cohort study in Japan.BJGP open · 2024Article
- Content validity of patient-reported measures evaluating experiences of the quality of transitions in healthcare settings-a scoping review.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Factors affecting the experience of joined-up, continuous primary care in the absence of relational continuity: an observational study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Observational
- Measurement of polydoctoring as a crucial component of fragmentation of care among patients with multimorbidity: Cross-sectional study in Japan.Journal of general and family medicine · 2023Article
- Longitudinal care continuity and avoidable hospitalization: the application of claims-based measures.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Ambulance use and subsequent fragmented hospital readmission among older adults.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Association of Fragmented Readmissions and Electronic Information Sharing With Discharge Destination Among Older Adults.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Primary care patterns among dual eligibles with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- Association of distance between hospitals and volume of shared admissions.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Continuity in general practice as predictor of mortality, acute hospitalisation, and use of out-of-hours care: a registry-based observational study in Norway.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Observational
- Continuity of care, measurement and association with hospital admission and mortality: a registry-based longitudinal cohort study.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Disparities in Audio-only Telemedicine Use Among Medicare Beneficiaries During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic.Medical care · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundContinuity of medical care is widely believed to lead to better health outcomes and service utilization patterns for patients. Most continuity studies, however, have only used administrative claims to assess longitudinal continuity with a provider. As a result, little is known about how interpersonal continuity (the patient's experience at the visit) relates to improved health outcomes and service use.
methodsWe linked claims-based longitudinal continuity and survey-based self-reported interpersonal continuity indicators for 1,219 Medicare beneficiaries who completed the National Health and Health Services Use Questionnaire. With these linked data, we prospectively evaluated the effect of both types of continuity of care indicators on emergency department use, hospitalization, and mortality over a five-year period.
resultsPatient-reported continuity was associated with reduced emergency department use, preventable hospitalization, and mortality. Most of the claims-based measures, including those most frequently used to assess continuity, were not associated with reduced utilization or mortality.
conclusionOur results indicate that the patient- and claims-based indicators of continuity have very different effects on these important health outcomes, suggesting that reform efforts must include the patient-provider experience when evaluating health care quality.
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